It is going to be a long night for the poor folks in southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi as extremely dangerous Hurricane Katrina moves across the area. The city of Houma is in Terrebonne Parish. It is very close to the Gulf of Mexico, separated from the Gulf of Mexico by only a few miles of marshland. I operate a Hampton Inn hotel there. Brazette Carlos and her team are a brave group of folks that are staying in the hotel tonight along some media folks and government officials. The hotel has never experienced a direct hit from a major hurricane. What a nerve wracking experience that will be for them.
As we commented last night, there are some similarities between Camille and Katrina. Both are powerful, steady-state hurricanes that maintained deep intensities for an extended period of time with little change. It appears that both hurricanes will strike generally the same area. Katrina will be moving north when it reaches the area just west of the Pearl River at the Mississippi/Louisiana border. The storms had nearly identical central pressures, but they still are very different. Camille was a very tight and small storm. Camille’s eye was only about five miles in diameter. It was a tightly wound storm. Katrina has had a 25-30 mile wide eye and a much larger wind field. Even though their central pressures have been very similar, Camille had much higher maximum sustained winds.
J.B. Elliott says he was on vacation on that fateful night in August 1969. He remembers listening to WWL radio in New Orleans to get information on the storm, just like people all over the country are doing tonight.
Walter Maestri, the Emergency Director for Jefferson Parish said on WWL last night that the center of Hurricane Katrina passing directly over the city of New Orleans was actually a blessing. He said that if the hurricane had passed 15-20 miles to the west, things would have been much worse. Hopefully, there will be no major changes overnight.
As we commented last night, there are some similarities between Camille and Katrina. Both are powerful, steady-state hurricanes that maintained deep intensities for an extended period of time with little change. It appears that both hurricanes will strike generally the same area. Katrina will be moving north when it reaches the area just west of the Pearl River at the Mississippi/Louisiana border. The storms had nearly identical central pressures, but they still are very different. Camille was a very tight and small storm. Camille’s eye was only about five miles in diameter. It was a tightly wound storm. Katrina has had a 25-30 mile wide eye and a much larger wind field. Even though their central pressures have been very similar, Camille had much higher maximum sustained winds.
J.B. Elliott says he was on vacation on that fateful night in August 1969. He remembers listening to WWL radio in New Orleans to get information on the storm, just like people all over the country are doing tonight.
Walter Maestri, the Emergency Director for Jefferson Parish said on WWL last night that the center of Hurricane Katrina passing directly over the city of New Orleans was actually a blessing. He said that if the hurricane had passed 15-20 miles to the west, things would have been much worse. Hopefully, there will be no major changes overnight.
on August 28, 2005, 10:20 pm
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